Lamar OdomBuys Popular Ingredient forHomemade Crack Pipes

9/11/2013 7:30 AM PDT

Lamar Odom -- Buys Popular Ingredient for Homemade Crack Pipes

Ominous sign for Lamar Odom's battle with drug addiction -- he scooped up a household cleaning product that doubles as a vital part of homemade crack pipes ... and TMZ has the photos.

Lamar and his driver walked out of a San Fernando Valley pharmacy on Tuesday with a bag full of items ... most notably ... Chore Boy copper scrubbing pads.

How commonly are the pads used for drug abuse? Type it into Google ... and "crack" is the first auto-fill topic besides the product name. Also, Forbes magazine wrote an article about its use as a filter in makeshift crack pipes.

Oh, and Urban Dictionary defines it like this: "Brand name of scouring pad used also by people smoking crack to retain some of the cocaine vapors."

According to the photo agency that snapped the pics ... Lamar made the conspicuous purchase shortly after meeting Khloe Kardashian's assistant to pick up some clothes. We're told the pharmacy is near the house where he used to live with Khloe.

As TMZ first told you, multiple people in Lamar's life -- like his estranged wife -- are saying he desperately needs to get in to rehab for many addictions, especially crack.

So, it's possible the NBA star had some kitchen cleaning to do, but we gotta ask ...